


The Sundered (The Swiss-Cheesed Remix)

by Medie



Category: Stargate: Atlantis
Genre: F/F, Femslash, gateverse_remix
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-23
Updated: 2010-02-23
Packaged: 2017-10-07 12:25:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/65141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Medie/pseuds/Medie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sora doesn't fit anymore and Teyla's not sure how to make her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sundered (The Swiss-Cheesed Remix)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://community.livejournal.com/gateverse_remix/profile)[**gateverse_remix**](http://community.livejournal.com/gateverse_remix/). A remix of [](http://queenzulu.livejournal.com/profile)[**queenzulu**](http://queenzulu.livejournal.com/)'s [The Forgotten](http://queenzulu.livejournal.com/158372.html). Much thanks to [](http://thenewhope.livejournal.com/profile)[**thenewhope**](http://thenewhope.livejournal.com/) and [](http://delja.livejournal.com/profile)[**delja**](http://delja.livejournal.com/) for their amazingly fast beta work.

-

The first day after the storm and the Genii invasion, it did not occur to Teyla to think of Sora. It was not out of neglect but a simple lack of time. In those first hours there had been the matter of bodies to contend with, the dead of her former allies to dispose of while the others returned to the city. Teyla had recalled all that she could of the Genii traditions but, when she returned to her room and stepped beneath the warm water of her shower, she believed that she had not done enough.

It was then, with the water washing down over her, that Teyla had remembered. In the moment that she thought Sora could have told her what to do; she realized that she had the option of asking.

After all, was Sora not currently residing in the Atlantean brig?

She stopped cold then, standing beneath the spray, guilt washing over her just as the water did. It was some time before she moved, turning off the water and stepping out.

It was logical, she knew, that she would forget in all the confusion. It was understandable. But as understandable as it was, she could not escape the shame of having forgotten her friend's presence. So many years lay behind them and it troubled her to think they could so easily be swept away.

She did not go to see Sora that night, she did not believe she could face her after that.

-

"How is she, Carson?" Teyla asked, meeting up with him outside the brig. She ignored the tiny flush of relief at forestalling that first moment yet again.

"Oh fine, fine," he said. "A bit perturbed, as you would imagine given her situation but that she can get over. I'll have to get her down to the infirmary, of course, just to be sure she's not suffered any radiation damage, but we've got time for that." He looked at her. "Have we tried talking to the Genii again?"

She sighed. "They will not listen. Any attempts we make to contact them are met by weapon's fire and silence." Teyla frowned. "I am not sure they will change their minds any time in the near future."

"Well, I'd imagine they're going to be a little resistent to talking for quite some time. The Genii did lose more than a few soldiers," Carson said. "That's bound to make anybody a little cranky."

Teyla did not argue the point, "I suspect telling them that Major Sheppard was justified in killing those soldiers will not help matters."

Carson chuckled. "No, I can't say that it would. Though, it would be nice to see the look on Kolya's face if you tried – supposing that he survived, of course."

"He survived," Teyla said quietly. "His kind are not so easily killed." She did not know Kolya, had never dealt with the man, but she knew his type. There were many such warriors in the galaxy, the Wraith made some cold and hard, squashing the humanity from their hearts. She suspected that Kolya was not so far from being such a man. "We will see him again."

"Do you think they'll try to come for Sora?"

Teyla shook her head. "I do not think they will even ask. Sora is only one soldier. Not worth the effort in their eyes." The Genii did not see the value in Sora that she did, that she had always seen.

"Well then, that leaves us with quite the dilemma, doesn't it?" Carson looked back at the brig. "Just what are we to do with her?"

She did not answer. Teyla was not sure what she wanted to say.

He looked at her and shook his head. "Come on then," he said, grabbing her by the arm. "We're going to go have a cup of something hot while you tell me just what's put that look on your face."  
_

"I assume," Carson said much later, pushing a plate of Athosian sweet cakes toward her, "that Sora is at the heart of this?"

Teyla reached for a small cake, recalling many days of watching Charin's hands work deftly to create them. Sweet cakes had been a rare treat, the ingredients usually too spare to waste, and she smiled at the sight of them. They were another sign of the increased trading between her people and the Atlanteans. A bite of one made her smile widen. Charin had made these.

"Yes," she said after she'd eaten the cake. "The matter of Sora has been on my mind for some time." Teyla sighed. "Everything I thought I understood about her, I have been questioning."

Carson looked at her. "Ever since you discovered the truth about the Genii?"

Teyla nodded. "It has been difficult - determining how many of our interactions was deception and how much was truth. I am uncertain as to how much of the Sora I remember is really her."

"And whether or not the friendship you remember is really a friendship at all?" He smiled sadly and patted her hand. "It's understandable, you know, that you'd be wondering about it. Especially after what's happened since you found out the truth. The loss of her father, the attack on the city, certainly nothing's happened that would _help_ matters. Well, other than her being stranded here of course. You've all the time in the world to figure things out now."

Teyla smiled weakly. "I suppose that we do." She sighed, shaking her head. "I am not usually so uncertain. It's troubling."

"Of course, it is," Carson said. "You're allowed to be confused about this."

He leaned close, squeezing her hand. "There's no point in telling yourself you shouldn't be feeling like this, my dear. You telling yourself something like that is only going to make you feel worse. However it is that Sora came to be here, however she ends up staying, you've got the time now to figure things out. So take it."

"I am not sure that I can," Teyla admitted. "And I am not sure that she will want to."

"Oh, she will," he said. "She wouldn't be so angry if she didn't care about you." He sat back. "And the day that Teyla Emmagan cannot do something is the day the rest of us might as well pack up and go home. You'll work this out, Teyla, I'm certain of that. You've just got to let yourself feel your feelings. The heart can't be rushed, lass. No matter how much your brain wishes it could."

Teyla reached for another cake, holding it in her hand. "I am not used to having time. Atlantis has changed much for me."

"Aye, it's changed things for all of us," Carson said. "The trick is catching up."

-

Teyla did not sleep that night, or the night that followed. Her mind had taken Carson's words and, believing them, would not cease in it's contemplation. Every time she closed her eyes, Sora was there waiting, dressed in the clothing of her lie and a smile bright as the sun.

She had not been to see Sora since her conversation with Carson, though she had tried many times. Each time she started toward the brig with the intent on visiting Sora her feet had somehow made a detour and carried her in another direction.

Still she was confused, uncertain, and although she knew visiting Sora might change that - still she did not go. She was not certain that she could and thus, she could not sleep.

Lying beneath her coverlet, Teyla frowned into the dark and rolled onto her side. Athosians were taught young the discipline to rest when the body and mind rebelled, life could easily become death if they did not. Rest had always been of the utmost importance, those who were not rested could easily be caught unawares by the Wraith.

And yet each time she closed her eyes and attempted to drift away, her mind brought her back to sharp awareness with a twist of guilt in her belly. The cells of the Atlantean brig were not nearly so comfortable as the bed that cradled her now and it pained her to think of Sora imprisoned there. It was foolish to worry, Teyla knew that, Sora was a soldier accustomed to far worse conditions. Indeed, the cell was likely luxury in comparison to anything the Genii would have gifted upon Teyla if the situation were reversed.

She smiled wryly. There would likely be no cell at all. The Genii were not the most forgiving of peoples and that, unfortunately, was a part of the problem.

Rolling onto her back, Teyla stared up at the arched ceiling of her room. When she had come to Atlantis, she had envisioned many things. Things like some day showing Sora the city, explaining the hopes hidden within Atlantis's walls, and sharing her dreams for the future. The dreams Atlantis had given her the chance to cultivate.

With the revelation of the Genii's deception, she had known relief at not having made that dream reality. With the Genii assault, she now knew horror at what might have been if she had shown Sora the city.

Her eagerness to hope could have been the engine of her friends' destruction. Sora had betrayed their friendship with a lie, Teyla was relieved that betrayal had not resulted in the spilled blood of her Atlantean friends.

Sitting up, she surrendered to the insomnia and threw back the coverlet. Her clothing lay in a neat pile on her bed and Teyla dressed quickly in the dark. The halls of Atlantis were sparsely populated at this late hour and she encountered few people on her journey.

"Ma'am," the guard greeted her with a nod, then stepped back and away from the screen to give her room. "I'll just go get a refill," he held up his coffee and smiled at her.

She inclined her head in thanks and smiled at his departing back. Many of the Atlanteans possessed a rather singular talent for understanding and, taking his seat, she was especially grateful for it now.

Sora was not sleeping either, instead pacing the cell with a look of frustration on her face. Exhaustion was written into every sharp edge of her expression, and Teyla closed her eyes with a sigh. She did not know how she could have missed this for so long, the warrior that Sora hid beneath laughing eyes and a quicksilver smile. The truth that stood stark on Sora's face mocked her ignorance and Teyla did not want to look again.

They had again tried to contact the Genii, Elizabeth hoping to return Sora to them as a gesture of good faith, and again the Genii had responded with bullets. There would be no exchange, Sora would remain among them and Teyla did not yet know how her heart felt about that.

Teyla frowned and watched Sora sit, straight-backed, in the corner of her cell. Though unarmed, the girl angled herself to face the door before she finally closed her eyes.

Asleep, she relaxed and looked like the Sora of old. So much so it made Teyla's heart ache. "Who are you?" She was so tired of it all. Tired of the questions and the confusion and the unanswered question that Sora represented. "Tell me, Sora, was any of it real?"

She had never before hated any of the Genii, but she would quite happily strangle Kolya if given the chance. Their great plan to destroy the Wraith had destroyed so much more and she thought she could hate them for it.

-

"You look like a woman with a problem," Sheppard said, sitting across from her at breakfast.

Teyla, picking at the rubbery eggs, looked up at him with a composed expression. "I do not understand what you mean, Major."

He slanted a look at her and liberally dosed his own eggs with salt. An action, Teyla knew, that would earn him no end of grief from Carson. She idly toyed with mentioning it to the doctor as Sheppard said, "Nice try, Teyla, but you've got that fidgety but serene thing going. It's a thing you do when your brain's trying to figure something out."

She put down her fork and surveyed him. "I do not."

He grinned. "Yeah, you do." Leaning forward, he looked at her. "Is this about Sora?" Teyla could not quite keep the reaction from her face and he winced, sitting back. "Thought it might be."

Teyla waited for him to say something further about it but Sheppard just reached for his coffee, stirring it before taking a healthy gulp. She watched him for a moment, uncertain of what he was going to do next, and then frowned. "You are not going to ask further?"

"Me?" He shook his head. "None of my business, I mean, if you _want_ to? Then sure, though you might wanna try Doctor Heightmeyer instead of me." Sheppard looked sheepish. "I'm not exactly the poster child for this stuff."

Deciding to skip over yet another reference she did not understand, Teyla shook her head. "No, I, I do not believe seeing anyone would be useful." She was not truly comfortable discussing it with anyone, including Carson and John.

"Well, if you're trying to figure this out, you should talk to _someone_."

Teyla nodded. "I know." She looked at him. "Has anything been decided about Sora?"

"No," Sheppard said. "You would have been there if we had. All I know is the same thing you do, we can't take her home, the Genii aren't answering the door. Well, not aren't answering with anything other than bullets." He pushed his coffee aside and looked at her. "I was going to ask if you had any ideas."

She smiled wryly. "I seem to have nothing but. However, the problem with all of them is that they make little sense."

"Well, that's understandable," he shrugged. "First she turns everything you know about her on its ear, then the thing with her father happens, and that's not even getting into the part where she tries to kill you." His smile echoed hers. "Believe me, Teyla, if there's anything I'm qualified on? It's recognizing a fucked up relationship when I see one. God knows I've been in enough."

"And now she sits in the brig, awaiting a fate none of us are sure of." Teyla sighed. "I do not know what to do, Major." She had gone over it so many times from so many directions. "I have not even been down to see her, I have no idea of what I would say to her."

"That I can't tell you," Sheppard said. "Nobody can tell you that one. I can't even suggest what you should do next, but I remember when you looked at her back on Genia." He glanced around them and then lowered his voice, "I remember how she looked at you. Whatever the hell went down, Teyla, I don't think you want to lose that."

-

The guard did not speak to her when Teyla arrived at his post, just smiled and made himself scarce. Again, she could not bring herself to go into the brig, but she had no real need to.

Sitting down, she looked at the face on the screen and considered her heart. She believed she knew what she wanted to do, now only the matter of convincing the others remained.

_

"Are you sure about this?" Elizabeth frowned, looking up from the proposals that littered her desk. She had listened with interest, not polite detachment, as Teyla had explained her idea. The question of what to do with Sora had hung over them all, but especially Elizabeth who had never seemed comfortable with leaving her in the brig.

"I am," Teyla nodded. "The Genii will not even consider listening to us and she cannot remain in the brig forever." She pressed her lips together, spreading her hands in a 'what will we do' gesture. "I have known Sora since our young days, I cannot leave her there. My people will welcome her."

"And if she tries to escape?" Elizabeth asked.

"Where will she go?" Teyla smiled. "The Stargate is on Atlantis and there is no way for Sora to reach the city unless escorted by guards. Living among my people, she will be no more threat to the security of Atlantis than she is at this very moment." She looked hopeful. "Perhaps, living there will help her."

"You're still hoping to convince her to change her mind, aren't you?" Elizabeth said. "After everything, Teyla, do you really think that's possible?"

"Yes," Teyla said. "I will always have hope that it will be, I _need_ to believe that it will be. I do not think I could bear it if our friendship is lost forever because of this."

"I hope it isn't," Elizabeth sat back. "Well, if you want to take her to the mainland, I'm not going to stop you. You said it yourself, we can't leave her down there and right now we can't send her back either. Life with the Athosians seems like it's the only option that she's got, it's certainly the best one."

She smiled. "I'll have one of the jumpers on standby for you."

"Thank you, Elizabeth," Teyla said, standing again. "For both of us."

-

Teyla did not go immediately to the brig but to her room and her own clothing. This was not a journey that she wished to take clad in the uniform of the Atlanteans, neither she nor Sora needed the reminder. At the moment, Atlantis and everything that it stood for could only be a stumbling block, one they did not need if this was to work.

Putting the clothing she had chosen on her bed, Teyla looked at it for a moment and let herself remember. It seemed only yesterday and yet it seemed a lifetime since she had been Teyla Emmagan, daughter of Tagan, and leader of the Athosian people – a woman to whom Atlantis seemed a long lost dream. A woman who had seen the Genii as valued allies and Sora as – Teyla sighed. _Sora_.

She reached for her shirt and began to pull it over her head. In the days since the Genii assault on Atlantis, Teyla had spent much time pondering the problem that was Sora and only part of that wondering what would be done with her. Her mind would not give up the struggle of reconciling 'Sora the Genii soldier' to 'Sora the friend' and the more Teyla considered it, the more confused she became.

Changing quickly, she left the room with the brig her final destination. Taking Sora to the mainland was the only way she could think to resolve the situation.

If, indeed, it could even be resolved. She stopped the thought as quickly as it passed through her mind and thought, instead, of Sheppard's advice. Teyla did not believe that what had passed between she and Sora was a lie, her heart stubbornly refused to consider accept that possibility and neither would she.

-

When she returned to Atlantis, Sora safe in the settlement, Teyla felt the knot of tension resting in her breast slowly begin to ease away. The things she had seen in Sora at their leave-taking had convinced that her decision had been a wise one. The girl she had known for so long had reappeared with the tears of the woman Sora had become. Charin had always said it was not wise to bury loss deep in the heart; doing so only freed it to consume the soul.

To see the grief finally released, Teyla believed the process had been halted which meant Sora could now begin to heal and Teyla could think of no better place to do that then living on the mainland among her people. Halling had much experience in taming the rage of a young woman grieving the loss of a father, Sora would do well under his tutelage.

"Do you really think this will work?" Rodney asked her later, when many days had passed.

Teyla smiled, her gaze on the horizon beyond which lay the mainland and Sora. "Yes," she said and believed it. "Sora is where she needs to be, my people can help her." Her smile became one of pride. "As she can help them. I have heard from Halling that she is proving to be of great help with the settlement's agricultural efforts."

"Oh yes," Rodney nodded. "When she wasn't plotting to take over Atlantis, Sora was playing Amish Barbie."

She looked at him, amused. "I suppose."

He blinked, realized, and waved a hand impatiently. "We need to get you "Earth Speak for Dummies" or whatever self-help books there are for that stuff. They have those for everything, they must have one for this."

"I am sure that there is," Teyla said. "Please pass the title on when you discover it." She took her leave from him then and headed for the jumper bay where her pilot waited with Orin and the others. Life in Atlantis had always meant a constant yearning, the necessary separation from her people was difficult for Teyla to bear, but now it had become nigh impossible. The updates on Sora's progress, ferried to her from Halling, did little to curb the urge to see her. At least Teyla could justify this visit with a purpose beyond satisfying her own desire to see her.

It seemed many things were being made clear by Sora's time among the Athosians and not all of them rested well with her. Sitting beside her pilot, Teyla tried calming herself as the puddlejumper rose up and out of the city.

She was still, as Doctor Weir would have said, a bundle of nerves by the time the jumper landed. What she expected to find when she left the sanctuary of the jumper and moved through the village, Teyla did not know. What she did know was that when she found Sora sparring with Halling, it was not that.

Sora moved like a predator toying with prey and it was glorious to see. The control and ease that she displayed in wielding the staves was impressive. Whatever uncharitable feelings Teyla harbored toward Kolya, she could not say that the results of his training were unimpressive. Sora was a warrior through and through, well-matched in a fight with Halling despite the great disparity in their sizes. Teyla held back to watch the match, not wanting her presence to intrude and dispel the moment's power.

Clad in Athosian leathers, Sora looked other-worldly and nothing like the Genii girl she had known so long ago. Teyla's breath caught with the sight of her and she permitted herself the luxury of staring. This was not the recalcitrant, angry woman that she had faced but someone else entirely.

That, in itself, was a relief. The news of the Wraith advancement would not go well and she needed the chance to escape it.

She watched, entranced, as Sora whirled, ducking beneath Halling's guard and striking out. He moved with it but she had him and Teyla smiled widely, forgetting for a brief instant the reasons for her visit as Sora became all she could see.

-

There was no time to warn the others and Teyla felt a pang of guilt with the thought. When the plan was created to feign the explosion, things happened quickly and there was no time and no way to send a message to the Athosians still in the settlement, those who had remained behind with the children and the sick. Halling, Jinto, _Sora_.

Many around her looked upward, watching the fallout from the nuclear detonation as it fizzled out against the city's shield, but Teyla turned her face from the sight. It did not trouble her to see it; she had her own thoughts for that.

They likely thought the city lost and Teyla along with it.

Until she could send word to the mainland, perhaps until she went herself, Sora would believe her dead. Though Teyla knew the time would be brief, it still wrenched her heart.

"Teyla?" Elizabeth's voice drew her from her melancholia and Teyla turned. "Are you all right? You seem troubled."

Teyla looked at some of the Athosians that passed, nodding at them as they greeted her. "I am," she said. "The others on the mainland – there was no time to warn them."

Elizabeth sighed and nodded. "As soon as it's safe, we'll send a jumper to let Sora know that you're all right." She smiled, reaching out to lightly grasp Teyla's upper arm, squeezing supportively. "It'll be fine."

"I am sure that it will be," Teyla affirmed. "However, it is difficult to think she is left to believe I am dead." She smiled. "And I did not speak of Sora specifically."

"No, you didn't," Elizabeth's own smile was sly. "You didn't need to." She said nothing further of how she knew but Elizabeth frequently knew far more about the goings on around her than she let on. It was merely good business. "Make sure Carson checks you out before you go, all right?"

"I am uninjured," Teyla said.

"I know, but, a nuclear bomb going off makes me jumpy so, please, humor me." Elizabeth released her arm and moved on to the others, leaving Teyla alone with her thoughts.

Resting her hands on the railing, Teyla looked out at the horizon, in the direction of the mainland, and thought of Sora, her body warm and eager against her own. She shivered, closing her eyes to feel the breeze brush over her skin, imagining it the touch of familiar fingers.

_Sora._


End file.
